For anyone who has gone through the process of baby-proofing a house, one of the top things experts encourage is anchoring furniture to prevent it from tipping on kids, especially little climbers. Of course, this isn’t something you want to skimp on — it could save your child’s life, after all — but according to a new report from Consumer Products, you don’t have to spend a lot of money to keep your little ones safe.
In fact, it might be better if you didn’t.
Let’s start with some genuinely good news: dressers, chests, armoires, and similar furniture are safer than ever. This is because in December 2022, the Stop Tip-overs of Unstable, Risky Dressers on Youth Act (or STURDY Act… you really have to hand it to them with these acronyms) was signed into law and went into effect September of last year. Up until then, furniture-makers weren’t required to thoroughly test their products for tipping risks. Now, they not only have to conduct such testing but they are required to provide wall anchors to secure any furniture manufactured after September 2023.
“This safety standard will prevent injuries and save children’s lives by ensuring that furniture is built to be more stable,” says Gabe Knight, a policy analyst at CR. “At the same time, it remains critically important for parents and caregivers to anchor furniture. This is not a panacea, but thankfully, before too long, manufacturers will be required to make safer products.”
But not all anchors are made equal. Consumer Reports rigorously tested 14 different kits. Some came with furniture sold at retailers like Ikea and Ashley Furniture while others were standalone products sold at Home Depot, Amazon, Lowes, and other national chains.
Interestingly, the most expensive kit tested ranked among the least reliable whereas a bargain product ranked among the strongest.
Some winning brands for use with a wooden stud include Simple Mount Furniture Anti-Tip Kit, which could withstand 347 pounds of force per anchor; Booda Brand Furniture Anchors; QuakeHOLD! Furniture Securing Straps; and the Safety 1st TV & Furniture Wall Straps. For metal studs behind drywall there were fewer options, QuakeHOLD! Furniture Securing Straps was the winner, resisting 230 pounds of force for one anchor or 460 pounds for two.
Among the least effective brands tested were Lomily Furniture Wall Anchor Straps and Qdos Zero Screw Furniture Anti-Tip Kit, resisting just 77 and 63 pounds of force respectively.
Overall, they found that metal or nylon straps worked better than plastic and peel and stick kits, generally, performed the worst. They also found that two straps work better than one, often more than doubling the amount of force it takes to break the strep or pull it out of the wall. Moreover, kits worked best when attached to a stud behind a drywall, even among kits that advertised not requiring one. In fact, only a third of those claiming to work fine in hollow drywall could withstand 60 pounds of force.
Currently, stress-testing anchor kits is voluntary. Some say the current standard — which only tests a kit’s static tension unattached to a wall or furniture — is insufficient to determine how it will hold up in actual use, a concern validated by Consumer Report’s own testing.
According to the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), thousands of children are injured annually by tipping furniture. Between 2000 and 2022, there were 581 tip-over fatalities involving furniture and the overwhelming majority of those cases (81%) were children. Of this number, 71% of child fatalities involved a television. So while ensuring safety testing for dressers will save kids, tethering furniture to a wall (specifically a wall stud) is still an important step to ensure your child’s safety.
